After the Storm
by IAmAverageLovesJohnlock
Summary: The storm had passed. It was all over. Ed and Al have had 2 years to adjust to life in Munich. But neither of them felt like they belonged. Still, everything seems calm and cheerful. Until Ed starts having violent dreams featuring a girl he'd never met. Who was she? And why did he keep seeing her die in his dream? Post Conqueror of Shamballa. Not Elriccest.


**Chapter 1**

"You know, brother, destiny is a funny thing," Al said to me as we walked home one rainy afternoon.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" I asked, letting my feet splash through a shallow puddle. Al just looked at me with a cheery expression, the one he always had when he was thinking about- well, the past two years, I suppose.

"Think about it. When you first took the State Alchemy exam, you were convinced that it was our destiny to get our bodies back. It's just funny how we did, yet we ended up in this world instead of our own."

I sighed. No matter how many times I reminded him that this world _was _our world now, he would always refer to it as "this world, this place," where the world we came from was always, "our world… back home.."

"I guess you're right," I agreed. "We did get our bodies back. Our destiny is just a little different than we imagined." Just a little. My prosthetic right arm still hung limply by my side as we walked- useless to me unless I wanted to break through the synthetic skin and cause another huge scene. It didn't matter how technically advanced my father's inventions were, though. They would never be the same as Winry's automail.

So it was true- even though it had been four years since I'd been to Risembool- and a year and a half since my automail broke down- there were some things from the other world that I would always miss.

But Munich, Germany had become much more of a home to Al and I since we broke down the Gate two years go. We were older now- I was nineteen and Al had just turned sixteen. We had fairly steady jobs, a steady, however small income and we shared the apartment I used to share with Alfonse Heidrich- before the Thule society practically destroyed both worlds and killed Alfonse in the process. We were finally making a home here, it seemed.

Al and I had a short funeral for Dad after everything was over. After that we set out to find and destroy that nuclear bomb. But we were too late. Sure, we managed to find out where it had gone- America. But the invention had been passed on- it was out of our hands now. I wished there was something we could do, but Al had made a good point to me back then. It was the only thing keeping me in Germany, and I will never forget when he said it to me.

_"Brother, no! You know there's nothing you can do!" Al held me fast as I struggled. He'd grown strong in the years we were apart._

_ "Let me go, dammit! I'll tear the bomb from his damn hands if I have to!" I tried to pull myself from his grasp, but he had a good grip on me and I was stuck._

_ "Stop, please!" He turned me around and held me by the shoulders. Looking into my brother's eyes I was temporarily frozen. It had been so long since I'd seen those eyes. _

_ "Brother," he pleaded. "We're on shaky ground with America as it is. You know the only way to get that bomb is to steal it. Don't you know what that would cause?" The word was on his lips and I caught it before he could._

_ "War," I said, my face paling._

_ "Exactly," said Al. "Think of the Ishvallan raids. All the horror they caused. Do you want that to happen here too?"_

_ He was right. I hated to admit it, but he was right. As the ship carrying the triumphant man and the bomb disappeared, I dropped to my knees on the pier._

_ Al was beside me. "He'll take it to America. He thinks they'll accept it. But they'll know. They'll know how dangerour it is. And they'll dispose of it. I promise, brother."_

_ I locked eyes with him and I knew he was telling the truth. That's why I let him help me up. Why I let him take me home. And why, later, I let myself sleep passively, letting the bomb out of my conscious mind._

"Brother?" I heard Al's voice beside me.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Are you coming in?"

I looked around, realizin that we were home and followed him through the door, heat flooding my cheeks. "Of course."

"What should we have for dinner?" He asked as I brushed past him.

"There's leftovers from yesterday in the ice-box. I'm not hungry," I said, heading straight for my bedroom. I had too much on my mind. I needed to be alone.

Al didn't look surprised. Skipping dinner had become regular for me. Besides, Al needed the food. At sixteen, he was a lot scrawnier than I'd ever been. And there wasn't exactly an excess of food. What with the inflation and with our salary, we were lucky to be able to afford anything at all.

I closed the door to my bedroom and collapsed on the bed, burying my face into the soft pillow. I should have known. This country was going to collapse into war, with or without the atomic bomb. I should have been more active. At least then I could've known that I tried.

I'm not sure how long I laid there in the cool darkness before sleep invaded me. It had been a long day. I was more than glad it was over. But my subconscious wasn't finished with me and my sleep became anything but restful as I tumbled into a fream.

I saw a girl. I'd never seen her before but she infected my dream. She was dancing on a stage in a dark, smoky club. Then we were in a lavishly decorated room and she was crying. I saw her everywhere as I flitted back and forth between dreams- and then I heard her scream, saw her in a dark alley with her dress torn, covered in blood- who's blood it was I had no idea. But it was everywhere, staining the mavement red, just like-

I woke with a start and broke out into a cold sweat. My mind raced and so did my heart. Who was that girl? And why was I dreaming aboiut her?

It was pitch dark in my room. I felt suffocated. I scrambled out of bed and practically threw myself out the door. Outside, the apartment was bathed in silver moonlight. Pushing my sweat-plastered hair away from my forehead, I sat down in one of the armchairs by the window and breathed. It wasn't the first time I'd done this. I'd been plagued constantly by nightmares since I passed across the gate. And when I didn't wake Alphonse up, I sat out here.

I turned my attention towards the window and the darkness outside. The moon shone faintly down on the city and the streets were bathed in yellow light from the streetlights that dotted the sidewalk. Sometimes there were people underneath each lamppost, as if the pools of light were whole worlds, the darkness between them the cold, black expanse of outer space.

But the streets were empty tonight. No happy couples, no drunken fistfights, not even the lone man with the cigarette that frequented the lampost on the corner. Tonight, the city was empty.

I glanced over at the grandfather clock by the wall. Al and I had found it in a yard sale and fixed it up. Now it sat against our wall, ticking faithfully day after day.

It was 4:30 in the morning. "Oh," I said outloud.

I debated going back to bed. The sun would be up soon enough, and I'd fallen asleep early. I exhaled deeply. After that dream, there was no way I would get back to sleep before it was light our.

I rose from my chair and headed toward the kitchen, putting the kettle on the stove and lighting it up. I stood over it and watched it boil. The steam licked my face gently, relaxing the muscles that I hadn't realized were so tense.

I took a deep breath. It was time to relax. I had never seen that girl before. And I would never see her again.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Soo that was chapter 1! I hoped you guys enjoyed it!**

**Oh, and if there was any confusion, the italic bit in the middle was a flashback. :)**

**Cheers! See you next time!**


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